By Tucker Henderson

Reporter

As they near the end of the season, the New York Mills speech team is taking advantage of every practice they are able to participate in.

The season started with their first practice in December and their first meet of the season was held at the end of January. With a weekly team practice and one individual practice each week, each one of the 23 team members have the chance to improve on a weekly basis.

“They’ve had to start over with a new coach, so it’s been different, trying to reestablish what my expectations are,” said Leah Roberts-Veazie, who is the new coach this year. “It’s always hard, I think for people when they get a new coach, because things are different.”

As they near their subsection tournament in April the team has earned much experience and success individually throughout the half-dozen meets they have participated in during the season. 

“I’ve had some students to really well,” said Roberts-Veazie. “I’ve had students break into the final rounds and place, I’ve had students earn superior and excellence in their category as well. We haven’t placed as a team, unfortunately. That is a goal that I keep holding on to. So we haven’t seen that success as a whole team yet, but we’ve had a lot of individual success which is good for our morale.”

This is Roberts-Veazie’s fourth year coaching speech, having started during her student teaching year in Perham, two years in Henning, and now starting off her first year in NY Mills as the new speech coach. She said it hasn’t always been an easy transition from competitor to coach, but she has found her groove in leadership.

“At first it was hard because I would miss competing,” she admitted. “At a tournament, I would get this sad feeling that I wasn’t still in the arena. It was different, it was uncomfortable at first.”

With a few years under her belt, she has gotten used to the coaching position and has found joy in that role more than she ever thought possible.

“I’ve really grown into it, I enjoy it,” Roberts-Veazie said. “I enjoy it more than I enjoyed competing and I didn’t think that would ever be possible. Their success feels genuinely better than mine and I didn’t think that would be.

“I get just as nervous, if not more nervous for awards,” she added. “I always have a stomach ache. I feel like when they do well, it’s like a win for me, but it’s better because I see how happy they are, so it’s better than it ever was when I was competing.”

With her past experience as a NY Mills speech team member, Roberts-Veazie has implemented her own practice strategies to make the most of each competitor’s skills and abilities. Weekly team practices takes places each Tuesday when the team will join together to utilize different strategies, techniques, as well as watching film of successful speeches, peer coaching, and boosting morale.

An individual practice is also required for each speech team member where they need to schedule a minimum of 20 minutes with Roberts-Veazie each week to rehearse speeches, running different parts, sentence revision, and fine-tuning every individual’s performance before they compete.

“I come in the morning, they can coach in the morning with me before school,” explained Roberts-Veazie, “Then I stay until 7 p.m. at least two night a week so they can come after their sports practices, so that they don’t have to choose.”

As an English teacher by trade, Roberts-Veazie finds joy in working with the literature-side of speech. As the sport itself is centered around the spoken word, she is excited when she’s able to cut down short stories to fit time constraints, finding poems with appropriate themes, and seeing scripts pop out of Netflix shows.

“I love that part, I love finding pieces of literature or topics and then thinking of a student who I think would be good at it or would be a good fit for them. I love that part, it’s like a puzzle. Sometimes you tell them, ‘I found this really cool piece I think you would like it,’ and they hate it,” she laughed. “That’s always the hurt.”

Speech members are looking towards the end of the season and are gearing up for the section tournament in early April. There, they will compete to place in the top three overall to continue on to the state tournament.

“I’m excited for our section tournament, I would really like to see multiple students make the state tournament,” said Roberts-Veazie. “I feel that’s possible, I think that they do too. So, I’m really anxious and excited for that section tournament. I’m also excited to have a banquet at the end of the season and showcase for the community and parents some of our performances.”

Remembering her own time as a speech team member under the leadership of coaches Rebecca Imsande, Kasey Wacker,and Audrey Caughey, Roberts-Veazie strives to make the same atmosphere for her own students to thrive in the sport that she loved in high school.

“I’m just really grateful that I get to coach here,” she said. “This is where I was introduced to speech, this is where I fell in love with it, so it’s quite the privilege to pay it back.”